Should I Be Gluten-Free? America's Silent Epidemic - Celiac Disease
http://blog.shouldibeglutenfree.com
Should I Be Gluten-Free?
Gluten Free baking, my gluten-free pizza recipe is the best!
Ever since I was a little girl I have loved baking! Thank goodness my mom was the best baker I have ever known and she taught my sister and I how. My youngest sister didn't get the same susie homemaker genes that I did but not everybody loves to do the domestic thing. I am glad that I learned how because I was able to teach all three of my kids. Since 2001 I have not been able to eat anything containing gluten so I had to bake if I wanted to eat bread, pizza, cookies, cakes, pies, etc. It has been a constant uphill challenge as baking gluten free is harder than using regular flour. There are many more ingredients that must be added to your recipe. After about 15 different pizza dough recipes I finally came up with the conclusion that I must invent my own. I used ingredients from all the other recipes and came up with a wonderful pizza dough. Last night I made a gluten free pizza crust and it was the best one ever! It does take a little time but it is worth the time invested because it is sooooo good. I have the recipe in my new book - Should I Be Gluten-Free? America's Silent Epidemic - Celiac Disease. The book was shipped on Friday so I should have it any day now, I am so excited!
I have included dozens of my favorite gluten-free recipes in my new book as well as in itemized, user-friendly grocery shopping guide with thousands of brand name products that are gluten free. My book is a complete and comprehensive guide to living a gluten free lifestyle. You will be able to purchase my book for $19.95, contact me for more information. Here is the recipe for the gluten-free pizza crust
Gluten-free Pizza Crust recipe 
After trying about 15 different gluten-free pizza dough recipes that I didn’t like, I combined a bunch of things from a few recipes and tried and tried and finally came up with a gluten-free pizza crust that is a big winner!
2/3 cup Brown Rice Flour
3/4 cup Tapioca Flour
2 Tablespoons Potato Flour
2 Tablespoons powdered Milk or powdered Buttermilk
1 teaspoon Cider Vinegar
3 Tablespoons melted Butter
1 Egg
½ teaspoon Italian Seasoning
½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
¾ teaspoon Xanthan gum
1 teaspoon Olive Oil
¾ teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoon Salt
1½ Tablespoons Yeast or 2 packages
1 teaspoon Sugar
1¼ cup warm (almost hot) water
Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.
Get a big bowl and mix - rice flour, tapioca flour, potato flour, powdered milk, cider vinegar, Italian seasoning, melted butter, garlic powder, egg, xanthan gum, olive oil, baking powder and salt.
In a separate container (I use my 2 cup measuring cup) add 1 ½ tablespoons or 2 packages yeast (I use Red Star) 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1¼ cup of warm water, stir and let stand so it doubles in size.
Once the yeast has doubled in size, pour it in with the other ingredients and mix with your electric mixer for about 3 minutes. It will be really sticky but keep mixing until it looks smooth, it will climb up the beaters so you have to keep stopping and pushing it down. If it looks and feels too thick, you can add a little more water to thin it a bit. If you are using a Kitchen Aide heavy duty stand mixer, the dough doesn’t seem to ride up the beaters as bad.
Once it is done, use a spatula and scrape all of it onto the pizza pan or cookie sheet, it depends on if you want a round or square pizza. I always sprinkle a thin layer of corn meal on whichever pan I use first, the pizza cooks more evenly and is crispier on the bottom.
The next part is something that will take some time to master, coat both of your hands with oil and start patting the dough to flatten it. You have to keep patting and lightly stretching the dough until it covers the pan. It takes a little while to accomplish this. It needs to be even across the pan while thicker on the edges so it looks like a pizza crust.
You will have to re-oil your hands a few times throughout this process. If you get dough sticking to your hands you will need to go and wash your hands, dry them and re-oil them and start again. Once the dough sticks to your hands, it will continue to keep sticking making it very hard to keep patting the dough because it will keep sticking to your hands.
Once the dough is in the shape of a pizza crust, bake it in the oven at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes or until it is just starting to turn brown. I find that if you cook the crust first for about 10 minutes, it really helps the pizza stay crisp in the middle after you add the other toppings and bake it.
After the crust has cooked for about 10 minutes, remove from oven and cool. You can then put your sauce, meat, cheese or whatever you want on your pizza and then bake in the oven at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and is starting to turn a little brown. Cool for about 5 minutes before you cut it.
Gluten-free Jelly Roll
Every time I walk into the grocery store I have to go right past the bakery. After 7 years of being on a complete gluten free diet, I still find this to be the hardest thing to avoid. I love baked goods! I see those chocolate glazed doughnuts and I just want to grab one and eat it right out of the case! I know I can't but I still want one, I remember how good they were! Each week as I am doing my grocery shopping, I walk around the bakery to see if, by chance, they might have something gluten free for me. They never do. This week I saw the most delicious looking jelly roll and I wanted it. Of course, I didn't buy it but I did come home and do some research on how I could make a gluten free jelly roll. I made one of my sponge cakes on a cookie sheet that had high sides on it. I poured out about an inch of batter and baked it. After it was cooled off a bit, I used my spatula to unstick it from the pan. I greased and floured the pan but it still stuck. After it was completely unstuck, I smeared my homemade chokecherry jelly over the entire thing, rolled it up and then rolled it in powdered sugar. Wow, it sure looks good, I wanted to have a piece right then.... but I didn't. I wrapped it up in foil and put it in the fridge. I can't wait to have a piece this morning, I know that it will be awesome! I will be sure to let you know how it turned out. It looks great so it should taste just as good. The recipe for my sponge cake is in my new book - Should I Be Gluten-Free? America's Silent Epidemic - Celiac Disease, along with dozens of all my favorite gluten-free reciipes.
New book on Celiac disease, gluten-free living
I am excited to announce that my new book - Should I Be Gluten-Free? America's Silent Epidemic-Celiac Disease - is on it's way to the printer. It should be back very soon and available to purchase by the middle of November! My book is a complete and comprehensive guide to living a gluten-free life including a full explanation of Celiac cisease, it's symptoms, an explanation of what gluten is, history of Celiac disease diagnoss and treatment. It also includes a complete, grocery shopping guide with thousands of brand name products that are gluten-free and dozens of my favorite gluten-free recipes that you will love! This is the first and only book on the market that is a complete guide to living a gluten-free lifestyle. I have worked very hard on this book and I believe that it will be a must-have for anyone who is going on a gluten-free diet. It should be there by your side all of the time as you will refer to it over and over again. To see what it looks like, go to my website at www.shouldibeglutenfree.com and there is a picture of it there! Contact me with any questions and I will be happy to talk with you.
Gluten-Free Norwegian Meatballs
Since going to the Scandinavian Smorgasbord at my church, I have been trying many of the Scandinavian recipes that were in the cookbook that I purchased. Last night I made the Norwegian meatballs. I'm beginning to believe that there were (and are) alot of people with Celiac disease/ gluten intolerance in Sweden and Norway. I've never made meatballs like this in my life and they were awesome! I started out with a pound of ground pork and a pound of ground beef, I added 1 cup of mashed potatoes (made with milk), 3 well beaten eggs, 3/4 cup of milk, 1 teaspoon of salt (it said to add a Tablespoon but I think that's way too much salt), 2 Tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of pepper, 1/4 teaspoon of allspice (I've never put allspice in my meatballs!), 2 Tablespoons of finely, chopped onion and 1/2 teaspoon of garlic. I mixed everything together really good and made small balls out of the meat mixture. I got about 30 meatballs when I was done, that is what the recipe said too, so I guess I made them the right size. I rolled each of the meatballs in my gluten-free flour mix. (For the gluten-free flour mix, I add 2 cups of brown rice flour, 2/3 cup of potato starch and 1/3 cup of tapioca flour and mix it all up really good.) After I rolled each meatball in the gluten-free flour (I used about a cup of flour), I melted about 3 Tablespoons of butter in my large, cast iron pan. Once the butter was melted, I added the meatballs to the pan. I realized that my pan wasn't big enough, so I had to get out my other big, frying pan and melt some more butter. I cooked both of the pans of meatballs until they were brown and well done, then I transfered the meatballs from the regular frying pan to the cast iron frying pan. I poured boiling water over all the meatballs, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan and placed the cast iron pan in the oven on 350 degrees. Once the water had all disappeared, I poured a cup of cream over the meatballs and put it back in the oven and cooked it until all the cream had disappeared. I have never used mashed potatoes to make meatballs and I have never put the frying pan directly into the oven after the browning was done! This was a very strange recipe but the results were amazing! Next, I made the gravy - I melted 2 Tablespoons of butter and added 2 Tablespoons of gluten-free flour mix to the melted butter and stirred constantly. It thickened up really fast, then added 1 cup of Beef broth, 1 Tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. The last thing I added was 1/4 cup of sour cream. I stirred this constantly while I was adding the ingredients and continued to stir while it thickened. Once the cream was gone from the meatballs and the gravy was thick, I served dinner and it was the best meatball dish I have ever had! Ialways wondered why I could never get enough potatoes, I guess it's because I'm Norwegian! It seems like there are potatoes in everything over there! I served this with a nice big salad. I am always happy to answer questions if you have any!
Scandinavian Potato Balls - Kropkakor
My first attempt at making Scandinavian potato balls was a flop! I went to the church's Scandinavian Smorgasbord on Saturday and got this recipe book with all kinds of Scandinavian recipes in it. There was one in there for Scandinavian potato balls that I thought looked really good. I had some leftover lefse dough so I thought that I could use it instead of making a new dough since the lefse dough had worked so well for the lefse. I had some leftover pork roast in the refrigerator so I chopped it up into tiny pieces and also chopped up half an onion, I put a couple of tablespoons of butter in a frying pan and added the chopped pork and onions with a little garlic and sauted it until it was browned. The recipe said to roll out the dough about an inch thick and cut rounds with a cookie cutter or large glass. I put a spoonful of the meat, onion mixture in the middle of each potato round and rolled them into balls. I was excited, these looked great, I was hoping they tasted as good as they looked. I used about 4 cups of chicken broth and I added a little water so there was enough liquid to add all the potato balls so they would be submerged. After the liquid started to boil, I added the potato balls. They all dropped to the bottom and it said that they will not rise to the surface until they are done. It said to cook them for 45 minutes and serve with melted butter or white sauce. I lifted the lid after 45 minutes and there they were! The balls had risen to the top which meant they were done. I turned off the pan and told everyone it was time to try them. Well, when I opened the lid back up after about 5 minutes, the balls were gone! I couldn't believe my eyes, what happened? I stirred the liquid and I did find about four balls. The rest had dissolved into the liquid and were now potato soup. The balls were very doughy but not too bad. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting. The recipe was so easy, how could I have screwed it up? Transforming recipes to gluten free recipes is always a challenge. Here is what the recipe said: Use 4 cups of mashed potatoes, a little salt and pepper, 1 egg, and a cup of flour. When you exhange a cup of flour for a cup of gluten free flour, you have to add xanthan gum to it. I also add a teaspoon of Knox gelatin which seems to give it the elasticity that it needs. After careful examination of what I did wrong I came to the conclusion that I shouldn't have used the lefse dough to make the potato balls. It also needed an egg which was not in the lefse dough. I thought I would save some time by using the leftover dough, I should have saved it for lefse and made the potato balls like the recipe said. I am planning to make another attempt at these potato balls this week because I know that they are going to taste wonderful once I figure it out. Sometimes it takes a few attempts to get the gluten free combination right. I know I can do it and it will be great!
Gluten-Free Cereals
Having Celiac disease has really changed our lives. We have been gluten-free since 2001 and are constantly looking for things to eat, especially, cereal for breakfast. For the first few years after we found out that we could no longer eat gluten containing foods, I would make a full breakfast every morning. We would have gluten free pancakes, which I would make from scratch using my mother-in-law's wonderful recipe and bacon and eggs. Or I would make waffles, I really like Lifestream Buckwheat Wildberry frozen waffles, of course they are gluten free and you just pop them in the toaster. I would also make Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty gluten free hot cereal, it's really good. When I started to get busier with work, I had to stop making this big breakfast every morning because it took so much time and we looked for alternatives for breakfast. I chose to eat a Yoplait original yogurt every morning, I would also eat a banana sometimes but my husband needed more. We started testing breakfast cereals recently and there aren't very many that taste good. I loved Cocoa Krispies growing up and that's the one I always ate. Every main stream cereal has barley malt or at least some sort of gluten in it so we started trying the gluten free ones. We tried the Gorilla Crunch, it was okay but we didn't buy it again. We tried Frosted Perky O's, they were awful. They tasted like stale cardboard, I actually took the box back to the store and got my money back, they were that bad. I don't know if they were old or what, but we didn't even finish three bites. I'm afraid to try them again, they were expensive and I hate wasting money like that. I just bought a box of Nature's Path Corn Flakes, it is really small and was expensive. The flakes are very thick, not like regular corn flakes. They stayed crisp in the milk for a long time, unlike regular corn flakes that sog up in about 2 minutes, and they tasted very good. I really like them and so does my husband. We could eat these alot if the box were bigger. I think that the box only lasted for two and a half breakfasts. The box needs to be bigger for the price they charge. I understand that they are organic and gluten free and all that, but when you buy a box of cereal you would like it to be there for at least a week, especially if only one person is eating it. I just found out the General Mills Rice Chex is now gluten free. Finally, we like Rice Chex, now we can buy a big box of cereal and it won't cost an arm and a leg. I am praying, that in the very near future, more mainstream cereals go gluten free. There are so many cereals that could be gluten free, if they would just get rid of the barley malt and replace it with something like molasses, which is what Rice Chex did, there would a much bigger variety for those of us who are gluten free.
Numbering pages with Word 2007
I am so frustrated. I am trying to number the pages in my new book with Word 2007 and I can't figure out what I need to do. I am so close to getting my book to print, all that is needed are the page numbers and the index. The program won't do the index until the pages have been numbered. I have been getting lots of estimates to print my book, I am self publishing and have sent out request for quotes to about 40 printers. I don't want page number on the first 14 pages, even though they count as pages, I don't want numbers on them. I want to start numbering on page 14 with the number 14. I worked on this for hours this afternoon but I couldn't get it figured out so I called the help line and was connected with someone in India. He tried to help me, he got as far as I did before he became just as confused as I was. We didn't get it figured out so now I am asking for help. Real estate in Aspen in still slow and we are coming into the off season. I am hoping that summer brings many sales. Anyway, if anyone out there knows how to do this page numbering with Word 2007, I would love any suggestions. I even printed out the step by step instructions and it still won't work. I actually got it to work from page 14 on but there was a number 21 on the first page and a number 2 on the second page, then nothing until page 14. I don't get it, I need help!
Gluten-free Lefse recipe (Norwegian Flatbread)
I love Lefse! I haven't been able to eat any since 2001. 2001 was when I discovered that I was gluten intolerant and that meant I had to give up many of my favorite foods, Lefse was one of them. For years, I have been going to figure out the recipe for gluten-free Lefse. I tried about four years ago and it was a disaster. My lefse would fall to pieces before it got to the griddle. I had a friend that had made lefse many times with her mom and she taught me how. I had eaten it my whole life but never made it. Gail taught me many tricks. My oldest son asks me every year, "What do you want for Christmas?" I started telling him different things I needed to make lefse the right way. When I made them with Gail, we had the correct rolling pin and the stick to flip them but that was it, oh, we had her mom's recipe. About three years ago, my son got me the special rolling pin, the big round pastry board with the cover and some rolling pin covers. The next year he got me the special stick for slipping the lefse. Last year I got the special lefse griddle, the sides are really low which makes it easier to slide the lefse on and off the griddle. This year I promised that we would make lefse when my son came home for Christmas, it didn't happen, we got so busy that we didn't have time to do it. I got my newsletter from the church on Saturday and saw that the 7th annual Scandinavian Smorgasbord was this coming Saturday and that they were looking for volunteers to help cook some of the dishes. I called and Rolf gave me the menu, not much is gluten-free but there are a few things. I told Rolf that I would like to bring gluten-free lefse because I know that my husband and I can't be the only gluten-free people in church! I asked how many people would be served, he said last year there were 125 and they are hoping for a bigger crowd this year. Wow, that's a lot of lefse! Especially, when I haven't even figured out the recipe yet. I decided that I needed to start working on it quick so I went online and found 5 different recipes and analyzed them all. Since the last time I made gluten-free lefse, it was a disaster, I knew what it needed to look and feel like to work. I figured out the combination of different ingredients that I thought would be needed and went to the store and bought a 10 pound bag of potatoes, some butter and some real cream. I came home and washed 10, large, potatoes and boiled them whole, with the skins on until they were done. I ran cold water over them and let them sit there to cool for awhile. Once they were cool, I peeled the skins off and cut the potatoes in half and ran them through a potato ricer into a big bowl. I ended up with about 6 cups of riced potatoes, I added 6 Tablespoons of butter to the pototoes and let it melt, then mixed it up, and put it in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes to cool. While I was waiting for the potatoes to cool down, I cleaned up the first mess that I made. Then I sifted together - 3 cups of gluten-free flour mix with 4 teaspoons of xanthan gum, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of knox gelatin and a teaspoon of salt. I sifted it 3 times and then got out the rolling pin and the pastry board (it was still in it's plastic). I unwrapped the pastry board and sprinkled tapioca flour all over it because it said to flour it first, so I did. I put the rolling pin cover on and set it on the pastry board, so now those two things were ready. I got out the griddle and washed the top, plugged it in and let it heat up a little bit to burn off any newness that was on there. Finally, I was ready to make lefse! It's quite a lot of prep work but I knew that it would be worth it. I took the potatoes out of the refrigerator and put them in the big mixing bowl of my Kitchen Aide. I got a new Kitchen aide-heavy duty, stand mixer for Christmas this year, so baking has been alot more fun. I added the 1/2 cup of cream to the potatoes and turned on the mixer. As it was mixing, I added the gluten-free flour mix, a little bit at a time, to the potatoes, until it was all thoroughly mixed up. The griddle was hot and ready and so was I. I floured the pastry board again and also the rolling pin, and got my stick ready. I put the griddle on the counter and the pastry board right next to it on the stove top. The pastry board needs to be really close to the griddle because you don't want to have to go very far with the very thinly, rolled out lefse. I took out a piece of the potato mixture about the size of a tennis ball and rolled it into a ball. I put the ball in the middle of the pastry board and smashed it down with the palm of my hand and then flipped it over, and smashed it a little bit more. I took my rolling pin and started to roll out the lefse. You need to start in the middle and with just a little pressure, roll forward quickly. You do this all the way around until the lefse is really thin and even. It ends up being about 12 inches in diameter if you have rolled it out right. This next part was very tricky, I didn't do very well with the first two. After the lefse is rolled out, I took my lefse stick and carefully, loosened the lefse from the pastry cloth. Once that was done, I slid the stick back underneath the lefse and picked it up and tried to flip it onto the griddle without breaking it. Well, it didn't work very well, it fell into two pieces so I cooked it the way it fell. While I was waiting for it to cook, I put a little more flour on the pastry board and rolling pin and got another piece of potato mixture and rolled it into ball and did the same thing with it. It was easier to flip the lefse once one side had cooked. It only took about 3 minutes or so, to cook it, it even had the little brown spots on it and the squares that you get when you roll in out with the special rolling pin. By the time I had made 5 lefse's, I had it figured out. I was making my first gluten-free lefse and it was working. I was so excited ! It held together really well and tasted awesome! It was nothing like what had happened in the past. The last time, they were falling apart and tasted really dry. I was on my 12th one, when my husband reminded me that we had to go to dinner at our friends house. I was bummed, I was just getting the hang of it and I had to quit! I had made quite a mess, there was flour everywhere. It took me about 20 minutes to get it all cleaned up and then I had to go and change my clothes, I had flour all over me. No wonder they used to wear aprons! I took 5 pieces of the lefse over to our friends house, they are also Scandinavian and I knew that she would tell me the honest truth about how my lefse tasted. They loved them! Lauri told me that I had done super, I should be proud of myself. If she didn't know that they were gluten-free, she would have never known by the texture or the taste. I know what I have to do now, I have more potato mixture in the fridge so I can practice some more but I am confident that I will deliver the gluten-free lefse to the Smorgasbord on Saturday and that I won't be embarrased. There are alot of older ladies in church that are very practiced lefse makers, I am excited to have them taste my lefse!
Gluten-free birthday cake
Wow, was I surprised when my son, who just turned 24 yesterday, asked me to make him a gluten-free birthday cake. I have been gluten-free since 2001 and everything that I make has been gluten-free for the last 7 years. The only exception has been, when I make a birthday cake for someone besides myself. Michael usually wants a German chocolate cake or a white cake with white frosting for his birthday. Lately he has been saying that whatever he ate gave him a stomach ache and he has indigestion but when he eats here with us, he feels fine. Especially, pizza, I remember about a year ago when he moved back in with us, I was making pizza, he said he couldn't eat pizza because it gave him heartburn, or indigestion. He said it was the pepperoni, I said it was the crust. I told him, just try mine, I bet it doesn't make your stomach hurt because it's gluten-free. He ate it and didn't feel bad, imagine that. So yesterday, when he asked me to make him a gluten-free cheesecake I was surprised and happy to see that he finally gets it. Celiac disease is hereditary and I've been trying to get him to understand that he probably has it too. So, I made the gluten-free cheesecake with my awesome pecan crust for his birthday, my birthday is on Saturday, what kind of cake am I going to make myself now that I made the cheesecake for him. That's what I was going to make for me! Guess I'll have chocolate cherry, it's my second favorite gluten-free cake. I have all of my cake recipes in my new book called Should I Be Gluten-Free? America's Silent Epidemic - Celiac Disease. If anyone is looking for an awesome baking recipe, my book will be out very soon.
Welcome to my new blog site!
Hi,
Welcome to my new blog site!
My name is Deb Bamesberger and I have been gluten-free since 2001. I live in Snowmass, Colorado with my husband, Craig and our beagle dog, Cali. My youngest son (23) is also living with us for the time being. I am an active, full-time real estate broker here in the Aspen area. I have done this since 1993 and love selling real estate! I have three kids, Dan, age 32, lives in Brooklyn, New York and is a copy editor for the new Conde Nast magazine, Portforlio. My daughter, Jennifer, age 25, lives in Honolulu, Hawaii and owns and operates her own pre-school. My youngest son, Michael, age 23, lives here in Snowmass with us and is employed full-time with a local company.
I turned 50 this last year and I started to go through this change in attitude that there is more to me than raising kids and selling real estate. I have wanted to write a book for last few years because I want to share the information that I know with everybody. I have never done anything like this but have been thinking about it for years!
I have been gluten-free since 2001 and so has my husband. We have Celiac disease and until 1997 I had never heard of it. When I met my mother-in-law she told me that she had Celiac disease and I was intrigued by what she had to tell me. It answered so many questions about what was going on with me. I was always bloated and constipated and tired. I had a stomach ache most of the time and ate Tums and Rolaids daily. In 2001, I decided to quit eating bread to see if it made a difference. What a difference it made! Within a week of eliminating bread and pasta, all of my symptoms disappeared. My husband had to make the change with me, of course, since I am the one who does the shopping and cooking. At that point, he decided to quit drinking beer since it contains barley and barley has gluten in it. He had gotten the flu in January and by March, he was still pale and lethargic with constant diarrhea. Within a week of eliminating the beer, bread and pasta, his color came back and so did his energy. That was when we made the decision to eliminate all of the gluten in our lives.
It has been a real learning experience! Over the course of the last 7 years, I have researched, read labels, baked my own breads, pies, cakes, cookies and completely transformed all of my regular recipes to gluten-free. Becoming gluten-free changed my life; my passion is to now educate as many people as possible about this silent disease. I have spent the last 6 months writing the book that I thought about for years. My book, Should I Be Gluten-Free? America's Silent Epidemic - Celiac disease, was written to help as many people as possible to understand what Celiac disease/gluten intolerance is and how to live a completely gluten-free life. It includes a full description of Celiac disease, it's symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, history, what gluten is and how it affects the intestine, a complete, itemized, user-friendly gluten-free grocery shopping guide and dozens of my tried and true gluten-free recipes. It is almost ready to go to print, I am so excited!
Writing a book is alot of work, I had no idea! I also decided to self publish my book, wow, is there a lot to learn! I know that there alot of people out there that have no idea that Celiac disease even exists, it is the most under diagnosed disease in America today! It is America's Silent Epidemic, 1 in 133 have Celiac disease and have no idea. My goal is to change that, the general population in America depend on the doctors to diagnose their ailments and treament usually consists of a prescription of some kind of pills. There are many symptoms of Celiac disease that are commonly diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease, acid reflux and a host of other complaints that are usually treated with some kind of drug when all that needs to be done is to change your diet to gluten-free. There is evidence that gluten intolerance is linked to autism and attention deficit disorder, migraines and obesity. Studies have shown remarkable improvement with just a change in diet! I have so much information to offer, I believe that I will be able to help many, many American's learn how to live the gluten-free life, this is just the beginning.
Welcome to my new blog site!
My name is Deb Bamesberger and I have been gluten-free since 2001. I live in Snowmass, Colorado with my husband, Craig and our beagle dog, Cali. My youngest son (23) is also living with us for the time being. I am an active, full-time real estate broker here in the Aspen area. I have done this since 1993 and love selling real estate! I have three kids, Dan, age 32, lives in Brooklyn, New York and is a copy editor for the new Conde Nast magazine, Portforlio. My daughter, Jennifer, age 25, lives in Honolulu, Hawaii and owns and operates her own pre-school. My youngest son, Michael, age 23, lives here in Snowmass with us and is employed full-time with a local company.
I turned 50 this last year and I started to go through this change in attitude that there is more to me than raising kids and selling real estate. I have wanted to write a book for last few years because I want to share the information that I know with everybody. I have never done anything like this but have been thinking about it for years!
I have been gluten-free since 2001 and so has my husband. We have Celiac disease and until 1997 I had never heard of it. When I met my mother-in-law she told me that she had Celiac disease and I was intrigued by what she had to tell me. It answered so many questions about what was going on with me. I was always bloated and constipated and tired. I had a stomach ache most of the time and ate Tums and Rolaids daily. In 2001, I decided to quit eating bread to see if it made a difference. What a difference it made! Within a week of eliminating bread and pasta, all of my symptoms disappeared. My husband had to make the change with me, of course, since I am the one who does the shopping and cooking. At that point, he decided to quit drinking beer since it contains barley and barley has gluten in it. He had gotten the flu in January and by March, he was still pale and lethargic with constant diarrhea. Within a week of eliminating the beer, bread and pasta, his color came back and so did his energy. That was when we made the decision to eliminate all of the gluten in our lives.
It has been a real learning experience! Over the course of the last 7 years, I have researched, read labels, baked my own breads, pies, cakes, cookies and completely transformed all of my regular recipes to gluten-free. Becoming gluten-free changed my life; my passion is to now educate as many people as possible about this silent disease. I have spent the last 6 months writing the book that I thought about for years. My book, Should I Be Gluten-Free? America's Silent Epidemic - Celiac disease, was written to help as many people as possible to understand what Celiac disease/gluten intolerance is and how to live a completely gluten-free life. It includes a full description of Celiac disease, it's symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, history, what gluten is and how it affects the intestine, a complete, itemized, user-friendly gluten-free grocery shopping guide and dozens of my tried and true gluten-free recipes. It is almost ready to go to print, I am so excited!
Writing a book is alot of work, I had no idea! I also decided to self publish my book, wow, is there a lot to learn! I know that there alot of people out there that have no idea that Celiac disease even exists, it is the most under diagnosed disease in America today! It is America's Silent Epidemic, 1 in 133 have Celiac disease and have no idea. My goal is to change that, the general population in America depend on the doctors to diagnose their ailments and treament usually consists of a prescription of some kind of pills. There are many symptoms of Celiac disease that are commonly diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease, acid reflux and a host of other complaints that are usually treated with some kind of drug when all that needs to be done is to change your diet to gluten-free. There is evidence that gluten intolerance is linked to autism and attention deficit disorder, migraines and obesity. Studies have shown remarkable improvement with just a change in diet! I have so much information to offer, I believe that I will be able to help many, many American's learn how to live the gluten-free life, this is just the beginning.